Christmas in Boise

I didn't think that I'd be too affected being alone this Christmas, but I really missed my kids and wife yesterday. I don't want that to sound like I'm searching for a pity party, it's just how I felt. It's nice to know I still do love my family!

It was nice to have the cat with me. Deed was so cuddly with me all day. For the most part I slept and watched movies just because I didn't want to get up and move her from my lap. When I did get going, it was mostly basic cleaning to prep me for the larger cleaning of the garage and "office" (the other 1/4 part of our bedroom).

I had eaten the rest of the lasagna leftovers Jay made before she left -- it was suppose to last for 2-3 days. It didn't get past Christmas Eve (I didn't want to share with Santa). Anyway, after I had chocolate truffles and a few Idaho Spuds for Lunch, I decided it was best to have a healthy meal for dinner. Working and sleeping all day didn't have me very motivated to do any cooking, so I debated whether I could/should go get take-out. The pros were obvious: laziness. The cons... Jay would probably kill me because we vowed to not waste $ on eating out. But I had an Ace up my sleeve: Justification!! I mean, Jay was in Idaho Falls with her family, eating wonderful meals by Sherwin and having pot-luck-ings on Christmas Eve at her Grandma's house. Didn't I deserve to have a nice meal? Of course I do!! Chicken noodle is not going to cut it for a Christmas dinner!

So, out I went. Seeing as Deedee was being so cute and affectionate with me all day, I decided to take her on a car ride with me. We got in my bosses car I had borrowed since Jay had the Toyota in Idaho Falls. First stop: Jack-in-the-Box... Why does JitB have their lights on when they are closed?!? Pulled up through the drive through just to check ... yup, closed. McDonald's would never be closed.. they're a large corporation without personal values, right? Wrong! They did have their lights off, but their drive-thru menus were still flashing advertisements making me even more hungry. Well, if McD's is closed, not much else was going to be open. I knew there had to be Chinese food open somewhere. They're typically more expensive and don't have $.99 - $1 menus, but I was hungry. It's amazing how generous my wallet gets when I get hungry...

All this time, Deedee was sitting in the passenger seat. On the search for a Chinese restaurant, she had come over to lay in my lap as I drive. She used to do that when she was a kitten and we'd go on long trips to Utah with her. Then I heard it. A muffled *huck, huck, huck, wreetch!* ...I suppose this means Deedee doesn't like driving anymore. I began to feel a warm spot on my leg under her mouth. Passing under a street light, I got to see the goods: About 3/4 cups of expanded and mushed kitty food dancing partially on my leg and some spilling over on the car seat. I didn't panic for I knew there was nothing I could do. I didn't have any Kleenex within reach and there was no way I was touching it. Then the noise came again... desert decided to join the regurgitated dinner on my lap.

By this time, I had lost my appetite for the moment (as have you if you're eating reading this, right?). I pulled a U-turn (sorry, Jay... I know it's illegal in Idaho, but I didn't want to wait until the next intersection) and headed back home. It was a cold night, but that didn't stop me from cracking a window once the aroma of condensed kitty spew began to permeate the car.

This is what I looked like when I realized what the cat had done.

Poor cat. The moment I opened the car door in our garage, she weakly got out of the car. I had to keep my right leg in sitting position while getting out of the car. Once our, I left it splork to the concrete floor where I found a plastic spoon and Wal*Mart receipts to clean it and what was still left in the car. No sooner had I finished when I heard crunching by the cat dish... At least someone got to eat!

Well, I did eat, eventually. I found eggs in the fridge, so I cracked 4 and mixed them together. Then I found a cut onion we use for cooking with our ground beef in the fridge... There were also leftover olives from tacos we had the previous week, and a lone tomato as well!!! Wrapper in 3 tortilla shells, I had a nice omelet for Christmas dinner. And to top it off? Egg Nog!

In the words of Bill Cosby, "I told you that story to tell you this one."

We haven't really taught myson about Christmas. So we wanted to share what had happened at our Christmas party in an attempt to show you all how cute our son is (cuter than yours, Nyah, nyah).

--I just broke my delete key...--

We were in the very front of our ward cultural hall, being furthest from the stage. When Santa came to visit, jingling his bells, we asked myson, "Who is that?" I was mildy surprised to see him get excited, figuring it was just because I asked the question with enthusiasm --there, it's working again--. I lifted up Hyrum so he could see who it was and you could tell that he locked on the man in red once he was past adult head levels. They announced that they would form a line at the front and you wold have to go through the door to get on the stage to see Santa. I put myson down and asked if he wanted to go see him. "YEAH!!" was his exuberant reply and off he darted down one isle of tables without us. He got near the front only to see that the way was mostly blocked by adults in chairs and big coats blocking his view. He ran back to us where he veered of to his left having no regard for any obstacle that would get in his way down another idle of tables. I would have warned him had I not been so amazed at his excitement. It was not long before he had reached the stage where he realized he could not get to Santa that way. He burst to the back of the line of kids which had already begun to form. Once he saw that the door to the stage was open, he darted through two kids in line and dashed into the open door. Seconds later you saw a red faced, bashful Hyrum standing next to Santa's chair -- the first kid there. Santa hadn't even gotten comfortable to accept any children yet and there was no adult to monitor the on-flux of kids -- myson had beaten them all.

Oh, it was so cute. We felt a bit bad about not teaching him about Santa, but he obviously picked it up somewhere. I'm sure we've mentioned him a few times, but never in the "Santa rides and sleigh with reindeer and he comes to give you presents if you're a good boy and he eats cookies left out at night and kisses your mum and laughs jollililly" way. I would have taken pictures but by the time I got to the front to get a good one, myson's turn had been done, had his candy cane, and my phone was out of memory, anyway.

Addendum

Thanks to my mom for finding the picture I was talking about and responding so quickly! Here it is.

Hmm, she looks nothing like me. When are we going to have kids that look like they belong to me and aren't just Mike clones!?! Also, Mom told me that this was the dress in it's original form. Grandma Page added some length to the bottom as I grew, and that's why the dress looks so much longer on Emily.

Be sure to read the post below for the latest updates.

Emily's Birthday

First things first. I promised you all pictures of the kids in their costumes a long time ago, so here you go! In the process of taking these pictures, I learned that Hyrum isn't very photogenic. Oh well, I still think he's cute!

Congratulations to those few of you who guessed Steve and Blue! And yes, even though Blue is blue, she IS a girl! I even made Hyrum a handy-dandy notebook just like Steve's to go with the costume. But he's played with it so much since Halloween that it's nearly destroyed. Those of you who voted for Hello Kitty deserve some credit though. We wanted to dress Emily as Hello Kitty, but couldn't figure a good way to do it on a tight budget and little time.

Thursday was Emily's first birthday! I can't believe it's been a year already. She seems so much younger to me than Hyrum did at a year old. After the good reviews I got on Hyrum's birthday video, I decided to do one of Emily's birthday. Sorry, not all of the Hyrum speak is translated because... well honestly, I have no idea what he was saying some of the time. Here's my cute girl on her big day!

Emily started to get the hang of opening presents. She managed to completely unwrap one of them herself. She got 3 shirts from me and Mike and a shirt, sweater, and pair of jeans from my mom. She looks adorable in all of them! Emily never did eat her cake. The rest of us didn't mind finishing it off for her! I do have some deceptive pictures of Emily with cake on her face and in her hair to commemorate the event.

Emily has finally started to crawl up on her knees. She still prefers to inch around on her belly, but maybe she'll get used to crawling in the next few days and do that more often. She has also started to pull up to standing. It's a little frustrating for me because she'll pull up to something and then get stuck and scream. She doesn't like letting go and falling on her bum. I figure she'd better get used to it or she'll never learn to walk!Last Sunday, we couldn't get Emily into her old dress. She's just gotten too big! We were about to resign ourselves to dressing her in her best casual clothes for church until I remembered an old hand-me-down dress from when I was a year old! My grandma Page made it for me when I was a baby, and I've had it ever since. It's still rather large on Emily, but she got a lot of compliments from the ladies at church. I was going to do a side by side comparison of me in the dress and her in the dress, but I couldn't find the picture of me I was looking for. Maybe my mom can help me out with that one. Till then, here's Emily. Hmm, I think I had more hair...


Hyrum is still loving school. He complains on the days when he doesn't have class because he wants to go so badly. Lately, he has taken to sleeping with his toy school bus that holds his Mega Blocks. It's a pretty big bus, so I usually have to convince him that it's better to leave it at the foot of his bed. The bus drivers told me that he has made lots of friends and that he is the best behaved and most polite on their route. That made me very proud! They told me about two of his friends, Priscilla and Santos. I was looking for a conversation topic with Hyrum and decided I'd ask him about his friends.

"Hyrum, is Priscilla in your class?"
"Yeah."
"Are you and Priscilla friends?"
"Yes."
"Do you like Priscilla?"
"Yes!"
"What about Santos? Do you like Santos?"
"NO!!"

I laughed SO hard! I still haven't figured out why he says he doesn't like Santos, but the answer is always the same. The bus ladies tell me that he and Santos get along great. I think maybe Hyrum just prefers girls. All of his friends up till now have been girls.

Someday, I'll have to try to make a video of Hyrum saying his bedtime prayers. It's so cute, and Mike and I have a hard time not laughing. Here's how it usually goes:

"Father in Heaven, we're thankful to family. For Mom, and Dad, and Hyrum, and Emily, and DeeDee (the cat), and Puddins (Hyrum's stuffed cat), and Cookie (Monster), and Boris (Joe's stuffed duck from Blue's Clues). We're thankful go to school. We're thankful go to sleep. Name of Jesus Christ... and Dad, and Mom, and Emily, and DeeDee. Name of... and Puddins, and Grandma, and Grandpa. Name of Jesus Christ, Amen!"

And so I leave you with a few more random pictures until I post again.

Long Awaited Update

Alright! So I promised this update a long time ago. We've been very busy around here, so I haven't found any time to update until now. However, this busyness also means that I have a lot more news to share.

Let's see... where to start..? We took our trip to Utah as I mentioned in my last blog. It was so nice to visit with Mike's family again. It was especially great to show off Emily since none of his family had met her before. We also got to see Angie's new baby who we'd never seen before. What a cutie! I could hardly believe how grown up Jeni's kids were. The thought of Caryssa getting ready for college just blows my mind!

Mike's mom was good enough to watch our kids for us while we stayed in the hotel Mike's boss provided. Boy was it a dump! Our floor reeked of onion rings, (Mike thought it smelled like curry) There was a crazy lady living down the hall from us, our front door didn't seal correctly, the lock wouldn't lock, the air conditioner and heater worked part-time, the bed was unfathomably hard, the lights flickered, and the bathroom door wouldn't latch. If we weren't staying for free, we would have complained.

I got to visit with Juliet, an old college friend, while Mike was in class for his certification. She brought her son Lincoln to the hotel to pick me up on Tuesday. First, we drove out to Kearns to visit my kids and have a picnic. However, when we got to Mike's mom's house, we realized we didn't have the car seat capacity to take all the kids and us to a park. We weren't horribly disappointed since it was quite freezing anyhow. After a great lunch provided to us by Mike's mom and dad, Juliet took me out to her cute house and we visited some more while Lincoln napped.

Wednesday was Halloween. Juliet and Lincoln met me at the mall across from the hotel. Lincoln was all dressed up for trick-or-treating. He made a very unintimidating ninja. Somehow the glasses and the un-ninja like smiles weren't too convincing. Still, the store clerks were glad to dump all the tootsie-rolls he wanted into his bucket, and lucky for Juliet, Lincoln didn't like tootsie-rolls! Mike and I were supposed to meet up with Juliet that night for their ward's trunk-or-treat, but Mike didn't get out of class until much later than he had anticipated. By the time we picked up the kids and got them in costume, trunk-or-treat was over. Instead, we took the kids around Mike's old neighborhood. Hyrum really enjoyed it at first, and Emily loved riding around in her stroller. The fun ended when, after only about a dozen houses, Hyrum tripped and skinned his knees and we had to go back. He got mostly gum. Gum, and a lot of Mexican candy.
- Mike: "What's 'Sabor Platano.. Goma de mascar'?"
- Me: "I think it's banana flavored gum."
- Mike: "Ah." *nods*
You're all going to have to wait a bit for the answer to the last poll. I was dumb and forgot to take pictures on Halloween, so I need to dress the kids up again so I can post one. Needless to say, they looked very cute. I'm sure you'll agree when you see them for yourselves.

Mike took the test on Thursday and said it was really hard. (We just found out last week that he passed!) I sat outside the classroom for over 2 hours with nothing to do but play on the internet on Mike's phone. Yay for wi-fi! Juliet met us again in the parking lot after the test and gave us some pumpkins and squash she had just picked up and we said goodbye to her. Then we picked up two very tired and cranky kids and headed home. Both kids slept like bricks over the next couple of days. They had a lot of fun getting to know their Grandma and Grandpa Aitken.

Emily met with a physical and developmental therapist earlier in November. We were concerned that she still wasn't crawling and figure she fell behind when she lost all that weight. They told us not to expect her to walk until she's 15-18 months. They said that's still average.. the slower side of average, but nothing to worry about. The rest of her development is adequate or above average for her age, so that was good news. Emily's development really wasn't far enough behind for her to qualify for the Infant Toddler Program through Health and Welfare, but the physical therapist is going to stop by now and then between her other appointments just to check in on us and suggest more exercises for us to do with Emily. Right now, we're supposed to brush the bottoms of her feet with a stiff brush. Apparently, the rest of her body developed while her feet didn't and the brush is suppose to stimulate some growth reflex in them. Her pediatrician didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with her at all, and told us not to let a physical therapist scare us. Since our meeting with the therapist, she has started getting around quite well. She still isn't exactly crawling, but she pulls herself along with her arms, and sometimes inches along like an inchworm. She is now up to about the 25th percentile for both height and weight. That's better than Hyrum's 20th percentile height and 10th weight. Yay, Emily! She has become quite a chubby little baby.

Hyrum started school this month! I'm so incredibly excited, and so is he! He absolutely loves school, and riding the bus is such a treat for him. He goes from 9-11 on Monday-Thursday. The extra half hour before and after for the bus ride brings the total to 3 Hyrum free hours for me! Now I get to do laundry without him kicking over the piles! Actually, I have yet to really enjoy his being gone. It's still so new to me that I sit by the window waiting for him to return. I've already seen some progress in his communication, and he's learning new things about shapes and animals. The teacher says he gets along great with the other kids and already has friends. Here's a couple of pictures of him on his first day.




Hyrum's 4th birthday was Saturday the 17th. We had been playing games at Spencer and Megan's house until really late the night before, and I wasn't feeling very well, so we didn't do anything that day except watch movies. But I did make him an apple crisp. He enjoyed it. He got to open his presents Sunday morning. I added subtitles for those of you who don't understand Hyrum speak.

No, Hyrum isn't crazy. He was meowing at his orange stuffed kitty who you can see sitting on the couch where he put his present. The backpack was from Hyrum's Grandma and Grandpa Crooks. Grandma and Grandpa Aitken gave him shoes while he was in Utah. The Moon Sand was from us. For those of you who don't know what Moon Sand is, it's similar to Playdough... kind of. It's almost like brown sugar in that you can crumble it to sand or pack and mold it. Thankfully, it isn't sticky like brown sugar! It also doesn't stain and vacuums up better than Playdough if it falls in the carpet. This is especially important to note when you remember that we don't have room for a table in our apartment. It's bound to get messy!

We had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving followed by a seemingly endless trip home with a very whiny Hyrum in the back seat. We got in late, and Hyrum crashed immediately only to have us wake him early the next morning. Our friends Spencer and Megan invited us out to their parents' house for a family get together to play some games, eat leftovers, and have birthday cake for several of the kids who had birthdays that month. They even had a cake for Hyrum! We knew their parents from our old ward in Meridian. Hyrum got to ride a horse for the first time. I wish I had remembered to take a picture. He was so excited for his turn while watching all the other kids go. But when his turn came up, he ran out to the horse only to realize when he got up closer, just how big the thing was! Bro. Pond lifted him up onto it's bare back and Hyrum flattened himself against the horse's neck and grasped a handful of mane. The horse shifted its weight, and Hyrum panicked and asked to get down before it could even take one step. Still, I thought he was very brave.

We left somewhat early because Hyrum, although he loved playing with the many other kids, was still very cranky from the day before. When we got him home, he continued to cry. We sent him to his room to play, but later found him curled up on his bedroom floor sobbing. Mike lifted him to his feet to give him a hug, and in the process realized that he was burning up. We've all been sick ever since. I'm really hoping that we're better by this weekend. My sister, Julie invited us out for Thanksgiving, but we already had plans. My niece, Shae is in town. I haven't seen her since she was about 6, and she's 21 now. We're hoping to go visit on Sunday.

That's about it for now. I'll try to take pictures of the kids in costume and post them sometime tomorrow.

PB & S

Remember peanut butter and syrup sandwiches? Yum!! We ran out of bread yesterday so I made all of us waffles. Seeing as myson's only lunch to date ever was PB/J sandwiches, I slapped some peanut butter on his waffles then drenched them in syrup. That brought back the nostalgia. I had forgotten how my brothers and would toast bread, spread on peanut butter and soak in syrup. The syrup would have to drip over the edges of the toast to get on the plate. Then you could put the toast on top of the syrup and have it soak in through the bottom.

Of course I don't have any cavities!!

Another thought: I love my new jeans that either wife or her mom gave me. I put them on the morning without a belt and I had a hard time keeping them on. It made me feel I didn't have any hips or read end to hold them up. When you get older, that's a pretty good feeling -- even for gawky me.

That's my random thoughts for today. I'll see you all later this week after we get back from Utah. After that, I'll be able to visit your local playground and spot all the dangers that lie within. MWA HA HA HA! (wife's going to be so bored when I subject her to conversations of that nature)

Short(er) Blog

This will be a somewhat shorter blog to be followed up by a longer blog with pictures and videos next week. You'll just have to wait till then. ;)

The reason I'm not posting a longer blog till next week is that Mike is going to Utah for some work related training. We leave on Monday afternoon, when Mike gets off of work, and come home Thursday evening. Our kids will be staying with their Grandma and Grandpa Aitken. Emily has become very clingy and needy lately. I wish them all the luck in the world in dealing with her. But, rather than tell you all our plans, I'll just tell you what happened when we get back.

Emily is doing a little bit better with her motor skills, although she still isn't crawling. We met with a case worker for the Infant Toddler Program who is trying to get us set up with a physical therapist who will come out to our house once a week to work with Emily. Until then, Mike and I are just trying to do all we can to encourage her to use her legs. She can drag herself with her arms and propel herself forward a little by pushing off with her toes. She can get around to wherever she wants to go, but it still isn't quite crawling. Lately though, she has been jumping in her Exersaucer (bouncy saucer toy thing) which I think has been helping her to build some much needed leg muscles. I don't think it'll be much longer before she really does crawl.

Emily is also starting to talk more. Currently, her vocabulary consists of Dad, Mom (pronounced "Bob"), brother, DeeDee (the cat's name), kitty, duck, bath, and hooray (as she lifts her arm into the air). She's so adorable!

Good news for Hyrum! He got accepted into the early intervention preschool we've been trying to get him into. We have a meeting with his teacher and the rest of the staff on November 13th. He'll start some time after that, attending 4 days a week, 2 hours a day. We are SO anxious for him to start talking. He turns 4 on November 17th, and still can't successfully communicate with us.

We got a good scare the other day. Mike let Hyrum outside to play for a little while, but he didn't expect him to go very far because it was raining. After less than 5 min, I asked Mike where he was. Mike told me he was right outside the door, but he wasn't. Mike stuck his head out and called for him, but no answer. A quick walk up and down the row of condos set us into a panic. Hyrum wasn't anywhere! Mike walked around several blocks before he came home and got the car to help him look better. I bundled Emily up and strapped her in her stroller and went out on foot. We looked everywhere. I was about to call the police and Mike was about to check the major road near our house to see if he had gone to watch the trucks or tried to walk to Jack-in-the-Box. He loves their french toast sticks. As Mike headed off to search some more, he passed by the alley that our house sits in. There in the driveway, perched atop a pink and purple tricycle, was Hyrum. We tried to ask Hyrum where the tricycle went.. told him to put it away, but he only tried to park it in our garage. Mike took him around to some of the neighbors who we know have young kids, but we never found the owner. To this day, I still have no idea where Hyrum went. It couldn't have been any of our nearby neighbors, because we checked with all of them. We parked the tricycle next to the road hoping someone would recognize it and pick it up. It sat there for half a week before it finally disappeared. I guess we need to get Hyrum one of his own so he doesn't do that again.

I was lazy this year for Halloween. I usually make the kids' costumes, but this year, I bought them. Yay for eBay! They won't be as cute or of as good a quality as when I make them myself, but it's so much easier this way! I'll probably go back to making them again next year. I've updated the poll for you to guess what they will be. The question will be answered in the form of pictures when we get home. Those of you who already know the answer, feel free to vote, but don't spoil it for everyone else!

Haddorkus

Cristtin's blog entry a few days ago was just too good to not link to it.

http://haddorkus.blogspot.com/2007/10/danisms.html

My then silent office was interrupted by my peircing laugh... Boss gave me a perplexed look. He understood after I sent him the link, so I still have my job :)

New Family Number!

Woohoo!

I just signed up with GrandCentral and got a new phone number that will reach me at all of my existing phones.

Now you can reach me everywhere (cell, work, home) with a single number. And if I move, switch jobs, or buy a new phone...this number never changes. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

For obvious privacy reasons, I'm not listing my number here, but you can use the button below or on the sidebar to have GrandCentral call you, after which it will call me! Just one thing, don't use all my minutes! :P

We're Expecting!!!

--just not a baby. We're expecting a lot of other things, though. I'm expecting Friday to come tomorrow. I'm also expecting bills to come in the mail. I'm expecting a Tax Refund next year, but then expecting it to go straight to pay off my Commerce and Labor debt. I'm also expecting to be debt free (excluding student loans... and something else) by March next year!!

Yes, I did have news before, but it fell through. We may have that news next Spring, but we won't know for sure until then.

On with other things!!

Family First. We're all doing much better now that we're out of the watchful eye of the evil landlord. We still haven't unpacked everything, but I'm not sure we ever will until we move again. This place is much too small to be able to fit everything.

Myson is scheduled for his screening today for speech therapy. He has a deficiency in motor and comprehension skills as well, but they believe it's from the lack of communication. For example, they would ask him to bring them the Red bear out of a few colored bears and he wouldn't do anything, but when they asked him, "What color is this bear?" He would respond with the color. We know he has a huge imagination and is intelligent, but not being able to communicate with him causes a lot of hindrance in him being able to learn and obey, which in turn leads to tantrums because hes not very patient with us. But the boy is dang-cute! He loves his mom and goes to her for comfort all the time, and goes to dad for a tickle victim and wacky fun ("Ok, son. When that car comes closer, walk out in front of it and Daddy will get a nice big paycheck!")

Thegirl is cute as ever! She's still happy most all the time, but not as much as her first several months of life. The veil definitely thinned. She's gained teeth -- I finally saw them! Jessica told me a few weeks ago she had them but when she'd try to show them she just wanted to hang her tongue out for me to see and blow raspberries. The most she's crawled was about 3 inches, the rest of the time she just goes in circles.

In other news... My CEO may fold the portion of the company I work for. It is still a long way off before he decides, and he's investing $ in my to get trained in Utah, so I'm not too concerned yet. However, it would be stupid of me not to have alternate plans as well. My backup plan is to move to Utah and take over sales in that area. We plan to buy the house from mom and find a place nearby where she can visit us everyday.

-- That, my family, was a joke --

Utah is for crazy drivers, and now I am a slow Idahoan. I enjoy the happiness of waving nicely to someone who allows me to merge in front of them on the freeway. I also enjoy reading the speed limit and not adding an additional 30 mph. We would, however, LOVE living close to mo-tab and the music environment of the Salt Lake Valley.

Moment of Inspiration!!
So, as some of you know from hearing me whine in my e-mails, I worked a lot last week... a lot. A very, very, lotted lot. 40 hours M-F on my daytime job and 45 hours Sun-Sun on my nighttime/weekend job. It was a pain not seeing my family. But beautiful Jay (adjective added for mum) in her wisdom and for her sanity would bring the kids by EatFreshway to see dad. It was soooo good seeing them. Emily would see me and say "DuD!" then push her face in Jay's shoulder being the shy girl she is. Anyway, that all sucked very much. I was able to see the kids and spend a bit of time with them Saturday morning, but it wasn't enough after finally being able to sleep in and then go back to work at 3.00pm. So, after slaving away all week, I was finally able to have Monday night off with my family.

I tell you, family is where it is at. It only took 10 mins of playing playing with myson to realize how much I missed him. I was overcome with a great feeling of peace, happiness, joy, etc. I couldn't exactly describe what it was, but I knew that I was doing the right thing by being with my family. It wasn't until later that night we had a knock on our door. I opened it to find 2 young men dressed in suits standing in front of me. They asked if they could talk with us about having our family be "together forever." I had never really thought that much about family after we get old and they my progeny going to college, so we invited them in. They told me a story about a 14-year old boy who went out to pray in the woods to find out which church was tru--

Can you guess where I started fibbing? Needless to say, I LOVE MY FAMILY! I even told Jay I loved her -- Crap! Did I just type that out loud?
-- Moment over --

Oh, you all know by now, but we won't be going to Utah this weekend. Earlier I told Jen, "We can't afford to go to Utah, but we also can't afford not to go." That statement would probably be profound if it wasn't so minimalistic. It simply means we have not the $ to go to Utah, but it's more important to forsake fiances finances and be with family, especially since we won't be seeing Dave/Karen/mini-DKs for a very long time. In the end, we crunched our numbers and just couldn't make it happen. Part of the reason being we need to save up $ to go to Utah the following month.

Which leads me to discuss this trip. I'll be going down to Utah on business from Sunday to Thursday/Friday, October 28th-November 1st-ish. I would love to meet up with my family one of those evenings. We'd like to have dinner at a restaurant or mum's with as many people as can make it. I'd like to say we can do other things on other nights, but this trip is for business -- and a break for Jay and I from... everything. I'll also be studying most nights for my exam on Thursday. I'm not sure if we're driving back to Idaho on Thursday night or Friday morning. The boss drives back the morning after on his trips to Utah, but -- you know -- he's the boss.

So... fake news, family, work... what's next?

Oh! I have officially quit FFXI. I don't have the time to do it + it was just taking too much time from the important things in my life: like my family and BSU football. I will miss my friends online, but the close ones I still intend to keep in contact via other means. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, read this section this way: "Mike's a geek. Mike's a geek. Mike's a geek. Mike's a geek."

Summarizing: I love you all, I'm lovin' life! My family is everything to me and I doubt I'd survive without them.

Nampa at last!

Yay! We finally moved! Have I ever said how much I hate moving? Well, I do. But I'm very glad to be away from our crazy landlord in Meridian. We had a few more run-ins with her before we left, however. The first involved a big Tonka dump truck that Hyrum liked to wheel his stuffed kitty around in out in the back yard. It was old and rusty, so we kept it tucked away in a hidden corner of the patio. As we were packing up, we found out that Dana had thrown it away because it didn't "show well." I love how she thinks she has ownership of not only the house, but the way we live our lives and even our personal property.

The second incident is a slightly longer story involving our back screen door and a forced entry. Basically, I like to lock the screen doors just for added security. Dana wanted to show the house to a prospective buyer and couldn't get a hold of us while we were at Mike's company picnic, so she forced the door open and broke it in the process. When we did the final walk through with her, she said she didn't remember doing it and it must have been the wind. So that will probably mean that she'll charge us for the damages.

She also conveniently doesn't remember that she got angry when she couldn't get a stain out of the dining room carpet and wasn't patient enough to wait for the professional steam cleaners to remove it and ended up bleaching the carpet white in that spot. Add on top of that the window that she broke while spraying the outside of the house with a pressure washer. Of course, she doesn't remember that either. I really wish we had picture documentation of all the damages she has done to the house while we were living there. Even if she takes our full deposit, I'll be ok with that. I just want to be done with her once and for all.

We're liking our new place so far. It's a little bit smaller, but not too bad. We had some difficulty with the move. We had plenty of help from our old ward in moving out of our old place, but no help at all moving into the new place. After moving what boxes and furniture Mike and I could do alone, we finally had to just call it good and leave the rest in the garage so we could return the truck. My brother James came out the next afternoon to help Mike move the rest of the heavy furniture in. We were so grateful since we know how busy he is with his wedding just a few days away.

Here is a video of the new place. Please forgive my voice. I've been sick for about 3 weeks with a nasty summer cold. (Let's hope this works. This is my first attempt at an embedded video.)

So that's the apartment! The biggest thing we miss has been having a yard for Hyrum to play in. I think he's getting pretty bored too. Last night while I was on the phone with my friend Sandi, I heard evil laughing from the kitchen and ran in to find Hyrum with the sink sprayer hose thingy spraying, well, everything. He had soaked the entire kitchen, two computers, the cushions on the bar stools, the carpet in front of the breakfast bar, the couches and end tables in the living room, the laundry I was folding and now have to dry and fold all over again, the living room carpet, and even the ceiling. Wow, that sprayer has good range. He had a lot of fun until he got caught. He got in BIG trouble!

Our neighbors are... interesting. There are tons of kids who live in these duplexes and they come over from time to time. On the day we moved in, 7 of them came to visit. I haven't let any of them come in to play with Hyrum since that first day though since one of the kids stole one of Hyrum's favorite trucks and he was quite upset about it. Most of the other neighbors who don't live in the duplexes are all related and own a family farm type of thing. It's not really a farm as much as it is a cow, some goats, and some chickens. They let Hyrum come and pet the animals and seemed very nice.

Emily got her first teeth! She seems to be getting more too. Either that, or she's just inexplicably cranky... I'll take some pictures and post them later, but it's hard to get her to show her teeth.

I got an email the other day about my 10 year high school reunion. I can hardly believe that I'm that old already! It's been kind of neat since it has given me an excuse to make contact with some old friends. They had only found 60 of us when they contacted me, and they didn't know where most of my friends were. Luckily, I do! Or at least I know who might know where they are. Boy, I wish I had kept up with them better. However, I've talked on the phone to a few friends since then, and my old friend Kristy is coming over for a visit today! I'm pretty excited to see her! She lived very close by when we lived in Meridian and we never saw each other even once.

Well, I've got lots to do today since it's Labor Day and Mike has the day off!! YAY! This is the first time in a long time that he's had a day off from both jobs, so we have lots of plans. Mike might post later on with another video he took once he figures out how to convert it. And hopefully we'll have some Labor Day fun pictures of us and the kids. Also, be expecting a surprise announcement from Mike! My mom already knows, but Mike hasn't told any of his family yet.

Looking Up

Last weekend, our landlord Dana came to show the house to a prospective buyer. We didn't want to leave our home while she showed it, and this made her angry beyond belief and she gave us a verbal eviction notice. However, we talked to Legal Aid and she has no legal grounds to evict us. They also told us that it is innapropriate for her to ask us to leave the house while she shows it. We didn't want a fight with Dana, so trying to take the higher road, Mike offered to sign an agreement to terminate the lease early. She still refused to buy us out of the lease. We're to the point where we just want to be done with her, so we gave in. We will end our lease on August 31. It'll be good to be rid of her once and for all.

However, this left us with the dilemna of where we were going to live. We searched like crazy all over Meridian and Nampa listings and went out to visit several places on Saturday. After a hard day with no really great leads, we came home for a bit of a rest and checked craigslist.org for any new listings. There was a new post about a pet friendly 3 bedroom, 2 bath duplex in Nampa for $750/mo. This was slightly on the higher side of what we were hoping for, but after looking at the places under $700 and not finding anything, we thought we'd try raising our housing budget. We called the number listed and spoke to the leasing agent Jenny who told us that they were actually renting for $650. This is a GREAT price, so we excitedly asked if we could set up a showing. A couple of hours later, she met us at the apartment. It was brand new construction, never before lived in. It was large and nice and absolutely incredible for that price, so we jumpped at it!

We had to fill out a rental applicaton which would check our credit and referals from past landlords. We were much more concerned about the referal from Dana than we were about a bankruptcy showing up on our credit report. We were right to be worried. Jenny had told us to expect a call from the building owner this afternoon as to weather or not we had gotten the apartment. After hearing nothing, Mike called Jenny to ask about the status of our application. She told us a very interesting story. It is her job to call on our referals and check our backgrounds. When she called Dana, she aparantly got an ear full of her ranting about what horrible people we are. Jenny said she was awful and crazy and she called Dana a few choice words that I won't repeat. She wasn't convinced about what Dana had said since she had met us and we didn't seem so horrible. So she called our landlord prior to Dana. We lived in a rather large complex owned by an even larger management agency. They told her that they remembered us and that we were excellent tenants. She called the building owner and told him about the conflicting reports from our landlords and told him her impression of us as being good clean and kind people. So the owner decided to drive by our house. He reported back to Jenny that the yard was emaculate and he couldn't imagine that the inside would be any different and that we were approved. Yay!

We will post pictures of the place on a later entry. We tried to take pictures the last time we were out there, but our camera died. Here are a few pictures from the craigslist listing.

Now all that's left is to finish packing... and to leave Dana a "present" hehe >:} See... I have this little scheme... part of us really craves revenge, but the better part of us wants our deposit back. So I've cooked up the perfect sabotage. Back when we moved in, Dana asked Mike to fertilize the yard 3 times a year. Once in the spring, once in the summer, and once in the fall. Mike accidentally over fertilized the front yard which caused it to grow at an uncontrollably fast rate. We had to mow about 2 times a week, and even doing that, the grass would still grow so long that it would start to seed. Dana, of course, complained even though we swore we had JUST mowed it 2 days earlier. I'm sure you've figured out where I'm going with this by now, but in case you haven't, I think it would be just perfect to buy a couple bags of fertilizer. It shouldn't be so difficult for her since she's out here every other day anyhow. (no, we won't really do it, but wouldn't it be fun?)

In other news, congratulations to Dave and Karen on their new baby! Make sure you get some pictures out ASAP! (blogs are great for that!)

Does it ever end?

Before I jump into some of the heavier details of our life, I must note that we read Harry Potter 7. Wow! What a great book! But it's so strange to think of it as being over... no more books to look forward to and speculate about in a few summers.

Ok, now for the rest. This is all rather difficult to talk about, and I hope I don't sound too depressing.

Thursday was the worst day ever. Late in the afternoon, the Department of Health and Welfare dropped by unannounced at our house. They invited themselves in and asked me if I knew why they were there. I told them no. They said that they had received a report that we are neglecting our kids by not feeding them or taking them to doctor appointments. This is absolutely ludicrous. Of course we feed our kids! They're just small. And if the doctor isn't worried, they shouldn't be either. As for not taking them to doctor appointments, that's just stupid. We've been taking Emily to the doctor more often than regular because of her health issues, so who knows where that came from. Health and Welfare is notorious for twisting things though. I'm sure someone called them and told them that we needed help financially because we can't afford baby food and have no medical insurance. But naturally, that MUST mean that we're neglecting and abusing our kids. I was so furious. They sat in my living room with a tape recorder for about an hour interviewing me. They took pictures of my house, my kids, even my cat. They checked our cat to see if she was diseased or abused. They wanted a closer look at Hyrum, but I insisted they leave him alone since he was napping. They told me they had to at least "Lay eyes on him" to confirm that he was ok. I was so infuriated. Of course, I kept my cool while they were there, but the second they left, I went to pieces. Why anyone would think that I wouldn't take care of my kids, I don't know. They're very happy and healthy. They're just small. These people at Health and Welfare have a chart that tells them how big a kid should be at a specific age but have no medical training. My kids are too small by the charts. Well, big deal! Their pediatrician says they're ok, and I'm gonna take his word for it. After all, he has a PHD and an MD. That's a heck of a lot better than a chart. They came back again the next morning when Hyrum was awake, and they could see him and Emily playing and smiling and giving us hugs and kisses. I think they were a little disappointed that they couldn't find any reason to take our kids away. Guess they'll have to fill their torn family quota on someone else.

As if this wasn't already stressful enough, Mike got a call while on his way to an Elder's Quarm meeting (he's the Elder's Quarm secretary now). It was our landlord who has a habit of bugging us constantly. She's at the house about 2-3 times a week and gives us absolutely no privacy. So it wasn't a big shock when she told Mike that she wanted to sell the house and we had until Saturday afternoon (not quite 2 days) to have the house ready for a walk through with her. Mike told her that that wasn't enough time to have it ready since he's working two jobs and I'm dealing with two kids. Cleaning up, sure, we could handle that. But things like cleaning the carpet, washing walls, washing windows, fixing dings in the walls.. there was no way. But no, she wouldn't give us an extension. She doesn't seem at all bothered by the fact that we're in a lease until November. She expects us out of the house whenever it sells. On top of that, she also wants us to vacate the house whenever a potential buyer wants to come look at it. This is so ridiculous. What am I supposed to do? Pick up my two kids and wander around on the street until they're done? I don't have a car or a place to go. Mike and I decided that we'd try to find another place ASAP. Although this is really maddening and inconvenient, it'll be good to be out from under her thumb. She's expecting us to stay in the house until it sells. But if she feels that she can break lease, then why can't we? She can't really complain if we move out early, although I'm sure she will. She needs us to keep paying rent so that she can make the payments on the house herself. Maybe she'll realize that she's asking too much when we move out and she can't find a buyer for 6 months! Sorry, that's my mean side talking a bit there. She won't even buy us out of our lease though. So I have no idea how we're going to find first month's rent and a deposit for a new place. But for now, we've started packing and looking for somewhere else. It's a little hard to do since Mike took on another job and is never home. I'm having to do all the packing myself, and who knows when we'll find time to look at a new place. It'll be hard to move again, but maybe we can find a cheaper place. That would certainly help a lot.

Eat Fresh!

I've finally secured my 2nd job. I wanted something that I could work part time nights and weekend, but also that wouldn't stress me out or tire me so much. Lucky for me, there is a Subway right around the corner!

Funny how I got hired: I had filled out a Subway and an Arctic Circle application. I was leaning towards wanting to work at AC since their customer service is so good -- I knew that their management would be good to work with. Subway was first on my way home, so I stopped in there. I met up with the manager to drop off the questionnaire while leaving an impression. She asked me if I had a few minutes to talk to her now. I did, so we sat down and asked me a few questions. She barely looked at my resume and asked me about my current job when she said, "Well, I'm ready to hire you if you're ready to accept!" Yeah, I wasn't going to turn something down when it gets laid in your lap like that -- consider it a blessing.

It feels good working there. They changed the management in the past month so it's running a lot smoother than it had before (we witnessed pretty bad service at this Subway before as customers). They put me in charge of the till on the 2nd day even though my first shift was only 2 hours long. After only 4 shifts, I'm closing the store solo tonight.

I asked the manager if there was anything she could critique me on or recommend I improve on. She said, "Nothing at all;" she was just glad that I was adult and mature as opposed to some other employees. She also told me that I could become a manager with ease if I wanted to. I let her know that was not my interest. See, I would work for them for a good long time -- about a year or more -- but I don't want to be full time restaurant unless I own one. The reasoning I have for even working at Subway as opposing to a higher paying job waiting tables is the stress factor. I don't have to be burdened with complex decisions and a stressful night. I want to be able to go home and be able to focus on my family, not whine about how hard the day was when I first get home.

Eleven!!

In Herbie Goes Banana's we learned that 53 is 8(ocho). Well, as that is the case, as of July 14th, I am now eleven. This is fantastic news except for the fact that next year I will be 3... :'(

My birthday's have never been all that fan-dangled. They've usually been overshadowed by other things like Bastille Day or Scout camp. Not that I'm complaining. I've never found much reason to celebrate me on any one day. I've found it greater reason to celebrate me every day of the year other than December 7th -- the day Pearl Harbour (if such a place is a proper noun, can I change the spelling from Harbor to Harbour?) was bombed.

I still have some very memorable moments on the few July 14th's I've encountered. Jeni's pie-in-the face ranks amongst the top several for sure. I can still taste it in my nasal passages today! I also remember my birthday last year as the year we made that going to eat as Whitewater Pizza & Pasta as yearly tradition. We skipped this year, however.

I'd have to say that this year was a great one, too. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I remember it everytime I read this blog entry.

I woke up early to enjoy the full length of this day -- also because myson woke me up and wanted breakfast. Since it was a special day, I treated him and myself to some waffles. I was going to make waffles in bed for {wife} as well, but i thought that she may enjoy sleep better than morning dough-in-a-toaster.

After that I treated myself to some alone time as I mowed our lawn. Throughout the day some people said that i shouldn't have had to do that on my Birthday. I agreed with them -- Mowing the lawn should always be done on Mondays!!

The funnest part of the day was going to the splash pad with the family! It was just like last time but this time we were in get-wet clothes; so dad got to get wet w/ Hyrum too :D It was a blast. Myson was very cautious around the water as any 3yr old would be, but he was very cute trying to stop the water from spouting out of the nozzles. He also got to be on Dad's shoulders for a bit as we both got dunked by the dunking bucaneer. Oo!! And we also go to go on the swings! Ang was right -- swings are life's natural high! I got to push hyrum first, then we got to sit down together. he liked it, but didn't think much of it. Then I let him sit alone and tried to teach him how to pump by swinging on the swing next to him. After a few "Forward. Back'"s i decided to just go real high since it have been awhile. That got Hyrum cracking up! I'm still writing this w/ a huge smile -- HE SO CUTE! ... Ok, barring the whole this-parent-loves-his-son point of view, he really was cute. Then Spencer (my supervisor from work was there too w/ his family) reminded me to do the spider-thingy on the swings w/ Hyrum by doing it w/ his daughter. ... *sigh* It was just a fun day to spend w/ the fam. Must do that more often.

We went home after the park in search for food. It was about 3pm and i had just realized -- the Elder's Quorum was meeting at 11am for a party/BBQ/swimming at Brother Walker's house >< /sigh. Missing free food is not one of my favorite things to do ;_;

After that we called around searching for a free babysitter so we could go watch a movie. We found one too, but we found out the day after that they were available. For the rest of the night we just bummed around the house watching Enterprise episodes we had recorded on the DVR. Jaypea did make this "deliciouso! Yum-yum-yum!" Apple-Rhubarb pie (can you tell we watch kids shows?). My boss had a rhubarb tree and it had grown like crazy. So he gave me ssome to take home and experiment with it. Since the pie, Jay has also made Rhubarb Muffins too. Not as delicious as the pie -- but nothing is bad if it has rhubarb in it!

The next day after church Kit said since she missed watching the kids last night, she'd watch them that night for us! We took up on the offer cause 1- we still had free movie tickets, 2- never deny a free babysitter, & 3- never mind... I didn't know how many points I'd be outlining and ran out of ideas. It was a good thing we went, too. I got to find out that i still loved my wife. Wait-- (turns to ask Jessica) right? Ok. (returned to blog) Yeah, she said I still do. We chose to watch Harry Potter 5 -- a very good choice, too. The movie was done very well -- for the 5th book being the largest or the saga, it was a shorter movie than the 4th (I believe); but they touched on the most important elements that would roll into movies 6 and 7.

We got home about Midnight:30... felt really bad about have kit w/ the kids for so long. The kids were still awake and that was actually a good thing since myson had not been going to bed peacefully recently. I didn't want to have Kit deal w/ that plus he looooooooves her so much, i knew it wouldn't be a problem for him to stay up. What i eventually felt worse about was that Kit succumbed to watching Blues Clues all night long w/ him! o_o Next time i'll let her know she has a bit more license on what she wants to watch of TV.

All in all, it was a great birthday. I still have plans to go eat at Whitewater when we get the gil to do so; but barring that, it was a great day!

P.S. We also did Dynamis-Buburimu w/ the DP ls. Man, was that a blast. It was going all so well until the evil head-honcho NM pummeled the linkshell. Regardless, it was not only a great learning experience, but was so fun to spend some time w/ my dear friends online. Can't wait until we give Apocalyptic Beast another try! :D

Emily Update

We took Emily back for another appointment and to have her weighed again. She gained 6oz in 2 weeks. Dr. Rand says this is a good amount of gain, but he would still like to see her doing some catching up since she now weighs 10lbs 11oz. I'm just glad that she's gaining instead of losing. We're supposed to keep bringing her back for regular weighings until we're sure she's growing again. But for now, scare over!

Quick Update

There's not much to tell yet, but I thought the blog needed an update since Mike updated the look of the page. My mom sent out an email to my family about Emily recently, so I thought I'd explain in my own words. Last Friday, I took Emily to the doctor for her 6 month checkup. The doctor says that she looks really healthy, except for one tiny little thing... Emily has lost weight since her 3 month appointment and is now down to only 10 pounds. The doctor asked a lot of questions like what she eats, how often she eats, how much she eats, if she likes to eat, had she been sick, had I been sick, even what her poop looks like (yes, I know.. yuck!). He couldn't find a single thing wrong with any of that information. We're assuming that even though she nurses often enough that she may not be getting enough milk in her feeding sessions, so he's having me try some things. In two weeks, we're supposed to take her back to be weighed again, and if there's no change they'll have to run some tests to make sure everything is alright with her digestive system. However, the doctor is confident that she is just fine since those types of problems usually present themselves at birth and she has been fine up until now. I'm sure that everything will turn out to be just fine since she is basically a very healthy baby aside from being terribly skinny.

In other Emily news, she has started rolling over and is so proud of herself! She even tries to get her knees under her, but she's still just a bit too wobbly to manage that for very long. She loves her brother and is crazy about the cat. Despise her small size, Emily has a deep hearty belly laugh. Not the tiny little giggle you'd expect from such a little girl. It always cracks us up to hear her laugh, and we all have a lot of fun trying to get her to do it.

Hyrum is talking a bit more, but he's still not speaking in sentences and doesn't use clear words like other kids his age. He is very smart, however, and has a great memory. His current favorite game is pointing out colors around the house. Red is his favorite color. He loves having a nice back yard to play in and spends hours running around, loading his dump truck with rocks, picking strawberries, and taking his stuffed kitty down the slide with him. Every night, he begs to run through the sprinklers. I cannot stress what a great brother Hyrum is! Whenever Emily cries, he runs to her and talks to her or tickles her belly with her stuffed cat until she calms down. It's a little silly, but he even loves to brush her hair and put barrettes in it after she has a bath. I bet he can't wait till she's old enough to play with him. He misses his Grandmas and Grandpas too. The other day, we were driving around town and pulled up alongside another car at a stoplight where he saw a man who he must have thought looked like his Grandpa Crooks wearing a baseball cap. He got so excited and started shouting, "Grandpa! Grandpa!" When the light turned green and the car started pulling away, he got a little bit upset saying, "No! No!!... Bye.." It makes me wish we lived closer both to my parents and Mike's.

Mike got a lawnmower for Father's Day this year. Our old hand-me-down one which worked just fine cutting down thick weeds at our house in Ammon finally gave up the ghost. It mowed the front yard and half of the back yard before it quit and wouldn't start again. We got tired of always having to borrow a mower from James or from our landlady. We were able to find a used refurbished mower with a full warranty at Home Depot. It really is great to have a nice yard to enjoy. Now what we really need is hedge clippers... Kind of makes me wish we had just agreed to pay the extra $25 a month to have all the yard work taken care of for us!

Settlers Park

Mike is still loving his new job. The company Mike works for sells playground equipment to parks and schools. It's his job to talk to installers, maintenance crews, and equipment buyers and sellers. On Wednesday, a maintenance crew had to be sent out to Settlers Park here in Meridian and Mike had to be there to represent the company. He was so impressed with the park that we decided to take the kids the next day. We invited Hyrum's friend Emily from his Sunbeams class and her mom to come along with us. I had never seen the park before and was amazed at how large and how nice it was. The park isn't quite finished yet and has several coming attractions such as climbing rocks, a fishing pond, splash pad, sand pit, 23 acres for 8 youth baseball fields, and a bunch of other plans I don't remember in the making. I mean, this park is HUGE!! They even put up a large screen and show movies one night a week.

The kids had a lot of fun! We started at the regular playground which they call Adventure Island. It's basically several yards worth of jungle gym equipment. Hyrum and Emily especially enjoyed the slides. Hyrum liked the bigger slides, but Emily got a little scared. We hit the swings afterwards, but again, Emily was afraid to swing, so she just pushed her mom and Hyrum.

Before too long, we ditched the standard playground equipment for the main attraction and the biggest reason we had come. Water Odyssey! It's like running through the sprinklers, but better!! They had all sorts of different types of sprayer including water cannons you can aim at your friends and a pirate ship's mast that fills up with water and tips to dump sheets of water on those standing beneath it. Here are a bunch of pictures.

An unsuspecting Hyrum pokes his finger in a pressure release sprayer...

... and gets his first drenching of the day!

Mike apparantly thought that Hyrum wasn't already wet enough. He wanted to really soak him, but decided that the "Dumping Buccaneer" was a bit too much water for such a little boy.

So he lined him up under a smaller version... Miss!

After watching all that water splash down, I was surprised that Hyrum was gullible enough to let his dad reposition him once more for a direct hit. It scared him pretty badly at first, but after a few seconds of panic and a hug from his dad, he decided it was pretty funny.

After getting hit with that final bucket full, Hyrum was cold and wet and tired and we headed home. But we had a lot of fun and it was all free! We'll definitely be going back!

Memorial Day

Mike got Memorial Day off of work and was actually disappointed because he enjoys his job so much. We mostly just stayed around home wishing we had the money to go visit Mike's family. In the morning, however, we did go out to Morris Hills Cemetery in Boise to put flowers on my Grandfather's grave. My Grandpa Sears died the summer before I was born. He was buried in what they called the Field of Honor 2 (since, I suppose, the Field of Honor 1 was full). They had decorated all the veterans' graves with flags. The picture came from my phone, so the quality isn't as good as if I had taken the picture with a real camera. The headstone reads:

Jess Richard Sears

US Navy

World War II

Nov 5 1923 Jun 11 1979

Here are a couple of random pictures of the kids that I found in my phone's camera. This first one is of Hyrum sleeping on the couch. We didn't set him up on the couch like this. Mike had dozed off watching TV on the couch one afternoon, and wanting to be like dad, he went and got his pillow, Cookie Monster, and his kitty and fell asleep himself. Hyrum has recently gotten very attached to his kitty, insisting that it watch him eat breakfast. We even caught him pretending to drive the car one day with his kitty bucked in his car seat in back.

Here is one of Emily with my Grandma Page on our recent visit to East Idaho. Grandma enjoyed feeding her, and I'm pretty sure Emily enjoyed it too. I was glad we got the chance to see my Grandma Page on our visit since she wasn't at home and we thought we'd miss her completely.

May 21, 2007

Hmm.. looks like I missed a week, and a lot has happened, so I hope I don't miss anything in this update.

May 12th was mine and Mike's 7 year anniversary. We celebrated that and Mother's Day with a trip to East Idaho to visit friends and family. We had an enjoyable weekend. On Friday, we went out to dinner with my long time friend Sandi and her husband Nathan. They took us to an Australian restaurant. We couldn't help but think of Angie. Mike had fish and chips and I had a meat pie. We both had ginger beer to drink.. I thought it tasted like someone had dumped a full bottle of ginger in a glass of water. It was strong. I also sampled a little bit of Vegemite. I actually really liked it! For desert, Mike made a special request, and although it wasn't on the menu, the cook knew just what he was talking about and did her best to accommodate, and we split a fried Snickers. As we ate, we were entertained by a local barbershop quartet. We finished out the evening at Sandi and Nathan's home playing Apples to Apples with them and Sandi's brother Steven.


Saturday, the actual day of our anniversary, I went shopping with my mom while Mike went golfing with Sherwin. I think we did better shopping than they did golfing. Mike says he hit a few balls into some living rooms. After shopping, my mom and I went to visit my Grandma Sears. She had never seen Emily in person, and I wanted to show her off. Grandma was thrilled to see that Emily's hair is a dark auburn. She said she's been nagging her kids and grandkids to give her a redhead grandbaby for years, and Emily may be the closest she gets. Now I just hope her hair doesn't darken. I'd hate to disappoint my grandma! (plus, I'd love to have a redhead myself!) That night, we let my mom and Sherwin babysit while we went to see Spiderman 3.

Sunday was Mother's Day. My Mother's Day gift was just being out of town and not having to prepare a Primary lesson that day. We attended church with my mom. I was surprised at how many people in that ward still remembered us. We only lived there for a few months, and it was so long ago. Of course, I got a plant too, but I think I left it at my mom's house by accident. We visited Sandi again that afternoon to show her the kids since we didn't take them to dinner with us the first night. We came back in time for a yummy dinner Sherwin had prepared and played Pinochle and Farkle. We decided that Mike ought to just give up the job hunt and send me to Vegas. Turns out I'm pretty lucky with dice.

Monday was our last day. We stuck around just long enough to have lunch with my mom on her lunch break, then headed out. On the way home, we stopped to see my Grandma Page who was visiting her sister in American Falls. She had also never seen Emily. She was mostly a good baby, but she was getting tired of the trip and wouldn't show off as much as I wanted her to. I guess I can't complain though. She's still so pleasant and far from being the cranky child that Hyrum was. I can't wait to show her off to Mike's family! (Yes, Jen. We'll be returning your DVDs too.)

When we returned home, Mike interviewed for the last of the two jobs at the call center, and although he said the interviews went well, they didn't take him for either. So as of last Friday, he works as an office manager for the playground company, Recreation Idaho. Either he or I will take a part time evening job to cover the rest of our expenses that the lower pay won't take care of. I'm less worried about the low pay than I am about the lack of insurance, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. I think that Mike will like the change of work though. He's been working in call centers pretty much since we got married, and he's tired of that line of work. This will be a nice change of pace for him. As for me, part of me wants to stay home with the kids, but another part of me wouldn't mind the chance to get out of the house and feel useful again. I just wonder if I'll have a hard time getting a job because I've been unemployed for so long staying home with the kids. But I have a good work record prior to becoming a stay at home mom. If nothing else, I'm sure the Arctic Circle on the corner near our house will take me since I've worked for 2 ACs in the past and was a favored employee at both.

Mike was released from his calling as Sunbeams teacher yesterday. He was trying to work 2 callings, and they decided to give callings to the seniors who are graduating this year before they head off to college. Their first objective was to relieve anyone who had more than one calling. Mike is still the ward choir director. I just hope that Hyrum will do alright without Mike teaching the class. Hyrum is so attached to his dad. They also released my teaching companion and replaced her with a senior. I hope this will work out better. My old companion had a lot of health issues and rarely came to church. I hope she'll be able to take a break now and be in better health.

Ok, I'll stop stalling and get to what you all really want now.. new pictures of Emily!







Aww, isn't she beautiful!?

Good News! (I think...)

Well, it's been a while since we've updated this blog. The main reason is because my mother has been hounding me to add new pictures of Emily, and we have yet to take any new pictures of her. We can't find the memory card for our camera, and while it has a decent amount of internal memory, the lost card still works as a good enough excuse for us to be lazy. Actually, part of it is that her nails grow at an astounding 1/2 inch per day and her face is constantly scratched up because of it and we have a deep respect (fear) for The Department of Health and Welfare. I promise new pictures of Emily next post.

It's a good thing that we put away that money from our tax return because Mike is still unemployed. Mike was so worried that he began a fast. That very day, Bro. Pond in our ward offered him some work. Unfortunately, it's not a job that Mike can do regularly due to his back problems. Bro. Pond is a plumber and Mike can't handle the lifting and digging for very long. However, Bro. Pond allowed him to work with him for a couple of days while he found something more permanent. Shortly after, he was hired at an outsourcing company to work customer service on an HP account. The day after he was hired, they called him back and told him that they were no longer hiring for that position. He lost the job before he even started. However, they told him that they had 2 other jobs available that they could interview him for. Both pay better than the job he was initially offered. One of them is a tech support help desk job and the other, which has the same title but pays more, is more of an IT position. They told him that he is well qualified for either. He interviews for the first of the two tomorrow and has yet to hear more about the second or to set up an interview for it. I'm thinking it may be an internal promotion type thing, and maybe that's why he hasn't heard from them. More help from Bro. Pond came in the form of his son-in-law's company. Consequently, he's in our ward also. (we have the best ward!) He and his wife own a company that sells commercial playground equipment to schools and businesses and such. They need a receptionist/web developer. They have already offered the position to Mike and he can start immediately. The downside is that they don't pay extremely well and there's really no chance of advancement. The wage is somewhere in the $9/hr area with a commission based on how well the company does that month. They told him it would come to around the high end of $10-$11/hr. This is less than he was making at T-Mobile when we were still just squeaking by. The upside is good hours and a friendlier environment. He'd also be able to bike to work. He'll probably take the job if he isn't given a better offer at EDS tomorrow. Either way, we can breathe a little easier now knowing that Mike will be going back to work soon.

Joseph got me hooked on drawing. I'm still not very good. I've never been a very good artist, but in the past couple of weeks, I've turned out some of the best stuff I've ever managed to draw. I've put it aside for a while, however. I ran out of erasers and sharp pencils. So until we buy a pencil sharpener and a (rather large) eraser, my new hobby will have to wait. Unlike Joseph who uses Photoshop or some other program of that sort to draw, I can't seem to make the computer work for me. I get frustrated when it doesn't do what I want it to. I think maybe I need to go over some tutorials or something to figure it out.

We were planning a short trip this weekend to celebrate our anniversary and Mike's new job, (the one that ended before it began) but now we're not entirely sure if we'll be able to make the trip anymore. It all depends on what job he takes and when they want him to start. I sure hope we can make something work out. We haven't taken a trip since... well, so long that I don't remember. Even if it's just a weekend away, it would be worth it. If we do take a trip, I'm sure we'll be updating the blog with lots of new pictures of the kids!

Speaking of the kids, they're doing great! Emily is such a joy. I just can't even express how much happiness she brings into our home. At a time when Mike and I have been so depressed and worried, her smiles and giggles and coos are all that have kept us going some days. Lately, she's gotten to be rather cranky and has been shoving her fist in her mouth and biting down. We think she must be teething. I'm so amazed at how quickly she's growing up. And yet, at church yesterday, I was in the mother's room with her and saw several other girls from another ward with their babies. They were all about the same length, maybe a little taller than Emily, and about twice as big around. Two of the mothers were apparently friends who had their babies around the same time. One was born in late February and the other in mid March. Here I was with Emily who was born in early December. It reminded me that she's still so much smaller than the other babies her age. I guess I shouldn't complain too much about her growing up.

Hyrum is potty trained!! I know that's probably not something any of you care about, but Mike and I are so thrilled that I had to post it here! He even sleeps through the night in regular underwear without any accidents! We're so very proud. Even more than we are proud, we are relieved. We just cut our diaper changes in half and reclaimed an extra few stink-free minutes of our day! All it took was a few new pairs of Cars underwear, and he decided that he didn't want to have any more accidents. He loves the movie Cars.

I really can't think of anything else.. I suspect that we'll be updating again soonish, so I'll just tag on anything else that I've forgotten on the next blog. Check back soon for more pictures of the cutest kids ever! (no, I'm not bias)

April 15th 2007

This week was an eventful one, and I feel... tired.

Monday morning, I started pestering Mike to get our taxes done. We had put it off for so long because we were told that our refund would probably be taken in our bankruptcy. We were told that we would either get one letter stating the "discharge of debtors" and "closing" or we would get a letter with just the discharge and they would close later. If the bankruptcy remained unclosed, they would take our tax return and we would get the closing letter later on. Well, we got the letter of discharge, but it didn't say anything about closing. However, as Mike was filling out all the information on the tax forms, he didn't notice any items asking about the bankruptcy. We gave our lawyer a quick call and found... it had been closed! Yay!! So what that means is that we got a pretty hefty refund! We wanted to rush right out and spend it on fun stuff, but of course, we know better than that. We paid rent and bills and tucked a large amount away in case Mike is unemployed for a while. We also bought Mike a new suit for interviews and I got my hair cut. It's all very boring when you consider how much fun we could have had on $5000. Then again, having a house to live in and food to eat could be considered "fun" too. The money was such a huge blessing. Our rent was past due and we didn't know where the money was going to come from. It was such a relief, and Mike and I were on cloud 9 all day. Heck, all week.

Emily had her 4 month checkup and shots on Wednesday. She's slowly dropping off the charts in weight and height. However, by the time Hyrum was this age, he was already too low for the charts, so she's still a bigger baby than he was. She took her shots very well at first. She only grimaced a bit, but didn't cry or complain. We thought we were so blessed to have such a wonderful baby... until the next day. By Thursday, Emily had developed a pretty high fever in relation to the shots. She was cranky and miserable, but slept more than usual. On Friday, she was still feeling sick and was awake and cranky most of the time. Saturday was even worse with hour upon hour of constant screaming. Thankfully, by this morning, she was back to her usual self.

In other Emily news, she tried her first solid food this week... if you call watered down rice cereal "solid." She really seemed to enjoy it. At first, she was angry because she thought we were being mean and not feeding her. But the second she got the spoon in her mouth, she said, "mmm!" and opened her mouth to beg for more.

Hyrum is learning and growing so quickly. It's so much fun to watch how he develops. We are concerned about his speech, however. We looked into getting him into speech therapy. They will do a screening on him, and if they find that he needs it, the public schools will pay for his speech therapy, and possibly preschool. We won't be able to have him tested until summer, but I really hope they can help him. He's a very bright kid and understands every word you say, but he just doesn't talk.

Well, I think that's all the news this week, so I'm off to eat some of the ice cream our refund bought!

Easter 2007

It was a quiet but enjoyable Easter at the Haddox home. We had planned to spend Easter with my family this year, but because of money restraints, we had to stay home. Sorry to my 2 grandmas who have not yet met Emily. We'll just have to plan another trip when our financial situation is a little more stable. For now, you'll just have to trust us that she's the most adorable little girl you'll ever meet!

Mike woke up early and made us all pancakes and eggs for breakfast. It was very yummy. After breakfast, we dyed eggs... yeah, I know it's usually supposed to be done the night before, but time got away from us watching movies, and Hyrum was falling asleep in his seat, so it had to wait. Here is a line-up of some of the eggs.

This one is an authentic Hyrum original! Note the bold crayon strokes and strong lines that represent man's struggle to find higher meaning in life... or something like that.

This egg was inspired by Hyrum's new hobby of running around the house finding and pointing out stars and circles. (Saars and Kirkles)

This was on the back of the "I Love Emily" egg.


This was the back side of the yellow "Egg head" egg shown on the bottom right of the line-up.


The main purpose of this egg was just to give Hyrum something to meow at. It matches the cats on the quilt I made him when he was a baby. He still sleeps with his quilt even though it no longer fits his regular sized bed.



I figured my favorite egg deserved two shots. This is a creation of Mike's and features a car on the front and a tow truck on the back. The top half is dyed blue for the sky, and the bottom, green for the grass. It also has clouds and a sun that didn't show up well in these pictures.

After egg coloring, Hyrum got to dig into his Easter basket. If there wasn't enough sticky, sugary goodness in the syrup from the pancakes, he got even more of it from the malted milk ball eggs and chocolate bunny. He also got a game of Memory. We played a few games with him with the cards facing up. We started with only a few different pairs and tried building up to more with each round. He's starting to catch on to the game, and maybe soon, he'll be able to play with the cards face down. I sure would have loved to get Emily something, but money didn't permit this year. Honestly, she's too young to know the difference anyhow! Next year we'll make it up to her.

Because we had to dye the eggs in the morning, the egg hunt had to wait until evening. We had wanted to hide eggs outside, but it was on again/off again rainy outside. Even when it was sunny, the ground was still soggy, so we had to hide the eggs in the living room. Mike tried to keep Hyrum distracted while I hid them. It was a tough task since Hyrum remembered hunting eggs from last year and wanted to get right to it. He rounded up those eggs pretty quickly and thoroughly enjoyed himself!


Sadly, all our nicely decorated eggs met a swift end. Only moments after the egg hunt, Hyrum helped me turn them into deviled eggs to go with the turkey roast I was making for dinner. He loves to watch me and Mike cook and always wants to lend a hand. I was afraid he'd make a mess of things, but as it turned out, he watched us very closely and did a really excellent job of cracking and shelling the eggs all on his own. He was very careful and didn't dig one single pit.

Bedtime was... well... difficult. Apparently, all that sugar makes kids hyper. Who knew?

Each year, I look forward more to the next. Holidays are more and more fun the older Hyrum gets and the more he understands and remembers. Soon, Emily will be able to enjoy the fun too. I can hardly wait!